Adapter V Adaptor
Adapter V Adaptor
(OP)
Now I know this has kind of come up before such as thread1010-262186: 'er' vs 'or' ending of a word, and based on this and my brief research the 2 are virtually interchangeable, however...
Back at my previous UK employer, we always used 'Adaptor' for items while the person doing the adapting was an 'Adapter'. This was drilled into me by an ex RAF tech pubs grammar Nazi and stuck with me.
At my current US employer the marketing guy wants to call something an "xxx Adapter". I can't make a hard argument against it, and can't be too bothered to fight it, but it just feels wrong.
Do I have any justification for this, or am I just doing it 'cause that's how I was taught?
Back at my previous UK employer, we always used 'Adaptor' for items while the person doing the adapting was an 'Adapter'. This was drilled into me by an ex RAF tech pubs grammar Nazi and stuck with me.
At my current US employer the marketing guy wants to call something an "xxx Adapter". I can't make a hard argument against it, and can't be too bothered to fight it, but it just feels wrong.
Do I have any justification for this, or am I just doing it 'cause that's how I was taught?
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RE: Adapter V Adaptor
==> Do I have any justification for this, or am I just doing it 'cause that's how I was taught?
I think it's only how you were taught; however, if you can find any dictionary, on either side of the pond, hat differentiates between the two for either people or equipment, please post the reference. I think you'll find even the OED accepts both spellings for both people and equipment.
Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
RE: Adapter V Adaptor
Might be the other way around in the OED -- I don't have that one to look at.
I think it seems to be more of an English vs American thing. Let's see what the others think.
Fun topic though!
Good on ya,
Goober Dave
RE: Adapter V Adaptor
Cambridge seems to make a distinction between the device and the person.
RE: Adapter V Adaptor
http://c
RE: Adapter V Adaptor
How so?
http://dic
http://dic
Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
RE: Adapter V Adaptor
-Kirby
Kirby Wilkerson
Remember, first define the problem, then solve it.
RE: Adapter V Adaptor
I have never been to the UK, but I was also taught as KENAT regarding the "-or" and "-er" word endings. I do not, however, have access to the texts to which I was taught.
"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - Robert Hunter
RE: Adapter V Adaptor
RE: Adapter V Adaptor
It really means; "these are the ways language is currently used".
All very post-modern, but not so useful for instruction.
And everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6).
RE: Adapter V Adaptor
Don't get all biblical on me now. There is always a tension between how language is used and how languange should be used. It is analogous to not being able to tell both where a particle is exactly and how fast it is going. I am not advocating the willy nilly do what ever you want linguisticly. If we did then everything teaching it would get all higgledy piggledy. But I am also saying that we don't speak like Bill Shakespear either, and that's o.k. Please don't revoke my poetic licence (or license).
ewh,
I would keep the distinction between principal and priciple, If the two words were as homographic as they are homonymous I would still be able to follow a written text as well as I could follow a converstation.
-Kirby
Kirby Wilkerson
Remember, first define the problem, then solve it.